Stories from the storm

Wednesday

Jan 29, 2014 at 9:44 AMJan 29, 2014 at 1:13 PM

Wilmingtonians woke to a winter wonderland Wednesday

With ice and snow covering Wilmington and the surrounding region Wednesday, StarNews reporters headed out to see how residents were faring. They found a lot of people staying in for the day, while others were out having fun. Here's a glimpse of what it was like in various neighborhoods.

Downtown Wilmington looked like a ghost town Wednesday morning, except for the corner of Ann and Front Streets.A group of about six neighborhood kids had gathered to sled down the hill from Front Street to Water Street using any materials they could find in their homes. Boogie boards, storage bins and even old campaign signs were transformed into makeshift sleds. Gerrit Swart, 9, said it was "really fun" to sled with his friends. Swart was using a Susi Hamilton campaign sign from her last election to the N.C. House, sometimes switching it out with a "For Sale" yard sign before sliding down the hill."The signs work really well," he said. "It's actually quite rapid.""That's what makes it fun," said his neighbor Sadie Baldwin. "Going fast!"Baldwin came to the hill with her parents, Ben and Rachel, and little sister Charlotte. This was their first time sledding in Wilmington, but Sadie said she had plenty of practice in the snow."We went skiing a couple of weeks ago," she said. "I was scared the first time on the ski lift, but now I think it's fun. This hill isn't scary at all."Hamilton herself came out to join the fun with her downtown neighbors."I saw my campaign sign and thought we should go check it out," she told the group. "What a good use for it!"

-- Ashley Withers

Wilmingtonians woke to a winter wonderland Wednesday and the brave few set out to enjoy the rare winter event. Jacobi, 9, and Juliet, 6, both took to sledding down their driveway. The icy conditions made for the perfect sledding conditions.Streets were free from the usual traffic and all but a few ventured farther than their house. Drewe Smith, 25, helped her friend Kallee Britton walk her dog.Smith said it was a rare event so she had to head into it and enjoy it "Enjoying, lightly," Smith said. "Freezing, mostly."Others were required to head out into the snow. Postal workers on Front Street were clearing off the sidewalk at the Post Office before the day's work."We didn't expect so much snow," said Thomas Holmes, 31.He said he hadn't cleared a sidewalk since 1989 when he was 7 years old."This is definitely like Gold's Gym before work," he said. "The best part is we still have to deliver the mail."

-- Jason Gonzales

Downtown Wilmington remained mostly quiet around 11 a.m. Wednesday, though a few signs of life had started to stir.On Orange Street between Eighth and Ninth streets, a trio of boys stood in the middle of the deserted road near a basketball hoop. Snow is a rarity in the Port City, they said, making it impossible to stay sequestered indoors, despite the chill outside."Inside is warm," said Kywan Mallette, 16, holding a basketball. "But inside isn't fun."Ten-year-old Micah Grant and 11-year-old Thomas Grant had brought a skimboard outside - a flat, oval-shaped piece of wood typically used to glide over incoming waves at the beach - and were determined to use it to surf the snow-covered street. Thomas attempted it first, ending in a belly flop, before Micah took a more successful turn, gliding roughly a dozen feet. The trio had no plans to go indoors soon, according to Micah."It's snowing outside, and we're children," he said matter-of-factly. "That mixes together really well."

-- Kate Elizabeth Queram

At Wrightsville Beach, the sand was capped by white icy snow.Near Johnnie Mercer's Fishing Pier, Crunchy, a Boston Terrier and schnauzer mix, excitedly hopped and ran over the white beach. It was the 8-month-old puppy's first time in the snow, said Ryan Birtles, who lives in Ogden.“It's not very often you see snow on the beach,” Birtles said.A group of friends took turns sliding across the slick icy mixture in beach chairs and on a skim board. (They tried to get Crunchy to use the board, but the puppy wasn't interested).Ryan Hunnicutt made it safely to the beach, but said another driver was sliding all over the road and nearly hit his vehicle near the intersection of Military Cutoff and Eastwood roads.Spencer Broadfoot pulled a sled for a group of children. Though it was cold, this week's snowfall was nothing compared to the 1989 snow, he said, remembering when drifts came up to his house.On Dec. 22-24, 1989, Wilmington saw 15.3 inches of snowfall, according to the National Weather Service.

-- Julian March

The Forest Hills neighborhood stayed quiet Wednesday morning.There was a single set of tire tracks and a few four-legged footprints along the 2300 block of Mimosa Place and Oleander Drive. But most cars stayed in driveways, windshields covered in a layer of snow, sleet and ice.Residents weren't budging, either. Despite a second consecutive day out of school for New Hanover County students, there weren't any children roaming around the area by 9:30 a.m. Wednesday. The icy mixture that covered grass, sidewalks and roads equally was too packed down to build a respectable snowman.

-- Pressley Baird

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